As ludicrous as Alabama’s law is, having lawyers for fetuses is not new—and they are not just appointed to try to stop girls from having abortions. In fact, they have been used for decades in state and judicial efforts to strip pregnant women of their civil and human rights.

Why are states continuing to pass abortion restrictions based partly on erroneous theories that abortion harms women? And why are state attorneys general calling as expert witnesses some of the very people who proffered these spurious notions to state legislatures in the first place?

Alabama anti-choicers are at it again, and this time they’re implying that abortion clinics are somehow a danger to children in the way sexual predators are. But the only way that could work is by magic.

Voters across the country will go to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to accept or reject 146 ballot measures, many revolving around polarizing issues that have yet to be addressed on the national level, and some representing the political priorities of far-right legislators in deep-red states.

“The fetus basically gets two lawyers to try and stop the minor from getting an abortion in a way that no other state’s law comes close to doing,” said Andrew Beck, one of the ACLU attorneys challenging the Alabama law on behalf of a Montgomery abortion clinic, arguing it is unconstitutional.